Alternative surnames in parish records.

[Jim Irvine]

I've been transcribing the parish records for Cloone RC parish for some time now and I have a large number of records. There are some names which seem to be almost interchangeable and others where the spelling is almost infinitely muteable. Some are fairly obvious, others much less so.

I thought I would post some here and ask if anyone out there had any other examples.

Kilkenny/Guilheany
Kilbride/Gilbride/MacBride/McBride
Grey/Gray/Colreavy
Moran/Moraran/McNamara
Heslin/Heslinan
Conlan/Conlin/Conlon/Connellan
Rourke/Rorke/Roark/Roarge/and almost any combination you can think of
Donelly/Donnelly and Conelly/Connelly
McCabe/McAbe
Cannon/Canning
Monaghan/Monaughan - Holahan/Holaghan/Holaughan
McGlaughlan(in)/McLaughlan(in) - McLoughlan etc

[Tom Coughlan]

I've come across:

Doyle/Doil
Kilrane/Kilrain/Kilbrain and Gilrane
Wynne/Winn
Geelan/Gillan
Diffely/Diffley/Diffly
Nicholl/Nicholls/Nicoll/Nicholas/Nicholds

These come (variously) Bornacoola, Gortletteragh and Mohill Parish Registers; Griffith Valuation and G.R.O.

Tom

[maggiemole]

I'm fairly sure of Haughey/Hoghey/Houghey: around Athleague and Fuerty. Americans have it as Hoye.
Maggie

[Jim Irvine]

Don't you just love our Irish ancestors. They surely knew that we'd be here decades/centuries later looking for them so what do they do?

They have the parish records written in Latin with information taken from dialect/Irish speaking parishioners.

Did anyone bother with spelling? Not in the least!

Good handwriting - never heard of it!

Nice neat lines? Naw - just squeeze the entries in wherever you can.

If a name sounded too Irish/not Irish enough - so what; change it to something else!